


Dinophilia

by keijibeam



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, aki makes a brief appearance but not enough to tag him, ft many many dinosaurs, yachi is mentioned once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26172202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keijibeam/pseuds/keijibeam
Summary: The truth behind Tsukki's dinosaur fixation.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 108





	Dinophilia

Kei was a child of few words. Outside of conversations with his older brother, he didn’t exchange pleasantries or share his interests, or speak to others in general if he could avoid it. He only spoke when necessary (and “necessary” was usually only when a biting remark occurred to him).

The boy walking next to him seemed to love to talk.

“Is that a new backpack? Can we eat lunch together? How long have you been playing volleyball? Did your older brother teach you? What did you get on the test? Are you good at studying? Let’s go home together!”

The constant conversation was jarring at first. No one had ever been so comfortable chatting about nothing with him, and if they had ever displayed an interest in attempting so, Kei was quick to make a caustic jab at their expense to ward them off. Ever since he had happened upon Yamaguchi and his bullies, the other boy had declared himself his best friend and hadn’t left his side. Kei’s surroundings had never been so noisy.

“Tsukki?”

Their walk home had taken them along the path of several trees huddled together, allowing them a short reprieve from the unrelenting rays of sunshine. Yamaguchi had paused underneath an especially large tree, and Kei stood a short distance away, content to stay in the shade as long as his companion liked.

He looked back at Yamaguchi, eyebrows raised in response and silent inquiry.

Yamaguchi shifted his feet. “Do I talk too much?”

Kei looked up to the sky in thought. If anyone else had noisily tailed him the way Yamaguchi did, the answer would be obvious.

“You do talk a lot,” he replied.

Yamaguchi smiled awkwardly and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, Tsukki. It’s a bad habit. I talk a lot when I’m nervous. And you’re just so cool! I can’t help it!”

Kei blinked. “You think I'm...cool?”

“Of course! The way you called out those bullies - and besides that, you just don’t care what anyone thinks. And you’re a great listener,” Yamaguchi added with a laugh.

“Cool” and “good at listening”...those weren’t common descriptors for him. It was usually “antisocial” or “hostile.” Occasionally “four-eyes.”

The awkwardness overcame Kei and his eyes wandered back up toward the sky. “You do talk a lot, but...I don’t mind. If it were a bother, I would tune you out.”

Kei looked back at Yamaguchi. The corners of his mouth were twitching in threat of releasing a smile he was attempting to hold back. At the sight of Yamaguchi’s expression, the next thing Kei said tumbled out of his mouth without warning.

“I think you’re cool, too.”

The threat of a smile was gone, replaced with two indisputably wide-as-they-could-get eyes and a hand frozen in mid-air. Yamaguchi’s mouth was open in a small ‘o’.

A long silence followed.

“U-um,” Yamaguchi stammered as his senses returned to him, “I - that’s - thank - “

“I meant your shirt,” Kei blurted out. “Your shirt. It’s cool. Your shirt is cool.”

Yamaguchi paused, again, and looked down at his torso. “Oh. My shirt…”

Kei looked at his shirt as well. It was the first time he’d taken notice of it that day. There were two creatures outlined on it - creatures he could vaguely recognize as dinosaur-shaped. The phrase ‘ _dinosaurs are RAWR-some!_ ’ enclosed the drawing.

“Really?” Yamaguchi asked. He looked up at Kei. “Do you like dinosaurs?”

Kei tried to remember the name of any dinosaur off the top of his head. “Yeah, I think they’re really cool.”

He watched Yamaguchi as the other boy stared silently into space. A lot of young boys were interested in dinosaurs, it wasn’t a weird thing to say. It wasn’t weird. It wasn’t a weird thing to say.

_It’s not a weird thing to say, right?_

Yamaguchi broke his silence. “That’s good to know,” he said, nodding slowly.

Kei wasn’t going to give himself any more time to agonize over what he’d done, and he wasn’t about to give Yamaguchi any more time to realize the oddness of what he’d said. He turned sharply and fast-walked down the path, continuing on towards their homes.

“It’s only going to get hotter,” he said over his shoulder, cringing as he left the shade of the trees and walked into view of the sun’s rays. “We should get home soon.”

There was the sound of sneakers thudding quickly against grass before Yamaguchi appeared at his side. Kei peered at him out of the corner of his eye, and as soon as he had, Yamaguchi beamed back at him as if he had been waiting for Kei’s glance.

“You’re right! Sorry, Tsukki!”

That year for Kei’s birthday, Yamaguchi gave him a stegosaurus model. It was the first, but not last, dinosaur-themed gift he would receive.

***

Several birthdays and just as many growth spurts later, Kei was still receiving dinosaur plushies, figurines, models, keychains, jigsaw puzzles, and other dino-themed gifts at every occasion. On his seventeenth birthday, he expected no less.

When he made it home from practice that day, he caught his older brother putting the final touches on a suspicious-looking cake.

“Nooo!” Akiteru cried out. He ran in front of the table, attempting to block the cake from Kei’s view. “It’s supposed to be a surprise!”

“I didn’t see anything,” Kei lied. He had caught a glimpse of Akiteru’s attempt at cake decorating. Strawberries and tiny plastic dinosaur figures sat in an alternating pattern on top of the cake. Kei made a conscious choice to forget he had seen anything.

“Good.” Akiteru smiled, his arms still outstretched as he wobbled back and forth just to make sure Kei couldn’t see past him. “Why are you alone? I thought Tadashi would come home with you.”

“He went home to change,” Kei replied. “He’ll be over later.”

“Good,” Akiteru said again. He was still smiling, though his expression was turning into something more strained. Kei could tell his brother was eager for him to leave so he could finish his work.

“I'll go change,” Kei said.

“Great! I'll call you when Tadashi arrives.”

“Thanks, nii-chan.”

Akiteru’s eyes squeezed shut in a broad grin. “Of course, of course,” he said, waving his hands. “Now go already!”

***

In his bedroom, Kei delicately placed his headphones on his desk. They were in poor condition after he had been smacked by a stray serve a couple of weeks ago. He had been meaning to mend them with the dinosaur-patterned duct tape he knew he had stored somewhere, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

After changing, Kei opened his closet and pulled out his box of dinosaur memorabilia. Most of the mementos he’d collected (or Yamaguchi had collected for him) were of dinosaurs that could have reasonably been considered to have lived in Japan. This included the spinosaurus, fukuiraptor, tanbaryu, and mamenchisaurus. There were foreign dinosaurs mixed in as well, like the tyrannosaurus rex and brachiosaurus. He’d even been gifted a couple of dinosaur encyclopedias -- both of which had extra large print and colorful photos -- that he would never admit he had spent multiple nights staying up until morning reading.

But the biggest, most cumbersome gift was a Yachi-sized plushie that Kei had squeezed into the depths of his closet. A plushie that Yamaguchi had proudly declared was the quintessentially Tsukki-est dinosaur there was upon gifting it to him. A plushie of a saltasaurus.

He didn't have much room to decorate, and he enjoyed rifling through his dino-box every so often to change out the souvenirs he kept on display, but this, he had never been able to find room for. He had never _wanted_ to find room for.

He squeezed the thought of the plushie back into the depths of his mind like he squeezed the real thing into his closet.

As he sifted through the box, the tail of a stegosaurus model stabbed him in the wrist. He recognized it as the first dinosaur gift Yamaguchi had given him. He pulled the model out and set it on a shelf, and after concluding that there was no duct tape in the box, returned it to its space at the top of his closet. From the shadows, the saltasaurus plushie caught his eye, and he grimaced.

A knock on the door saved him.

“Tsukki?” The door opened and Yamaguchi’s head poked in. “Akiteru-kun invited me in.” He wore a mischievous grin and was doing a poor job of hiding something behind his back.

Kei nodded, gesturing for Yamaguchi to come in. He wore shorts and a plain t-shirt. The phrase ‘ _dinosaurs are RAWR-some!_ ’ drifted through Kei’s mind but he shook it away before he could examine where it came from. He sat down on his bed and waited for Yamaguchi, who was currently hopping across his bedroom, to sit beside him. As Yamaguchi dropped into place, he held out the box he had been hiding behind his back.

“Happy birthday!” he said proudly. To Kei's surprise, the wrapping paper was a solid, deep purple and _not_ decorated with dinosaurs. It had a shimmer to it, but there were no creatures to be seen that embellished the wrapping.

Kei mumbled a “thank you,” and made no attempt to hide his smile. He'd grown out of that habit around Yamaguchi.

“I wonder what it could be,” he said, half sarcastically and half out of genuine curiosity. His hands slid over the box in anticipation. If it was a box this size, it could be a model of a larger dinosaur, like a dreadnoughtus or an argentinosaurus. He’d always enjoyed himself while putting models together in the past and Yamaguchi hadn’t gifted him one in a while.

“Open it already!” Yamaguchi demanded.

Kei enthusiastically obliged, sliding his fingers under the folded down ends and ripping the tape in half. He unfolded the wrapping paper slowly, just to tease Yamaguchi, since they both knew what he would uncover. When he finally, finally, revealed what was hidden inside, he paused for a moment and stared.

He ripped the wrapping paper the rest of the way off and held the box up. He turned it around and around, examining every corner and detail, reading every word written on the packaging, before turning to Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi looked back at him, eyes wide with delight and a grin that showed all of his teeth.

“Do you like it?” he asked, his grin unwavering.

It took a moment for Kei to overcome his shock enough to answer.

“Yes,” he said, "It’s exactly what I needed.” And in truth, it _was_ exactly what he needed. He held in his hands a new pair of headphones, the same brand he preferred, but a newer and more advanced model. “I like it, but I'm surprised by it,” Kei added.

“Isn’t that a necessary component of a good gift?” Yamaguchi asked. “It should surprise you!”

“Yes, I'm just extra surprised because...there’s no dinosaur theme to it.”

“Aah,” Yamaguchi sighed. “Well, I figured it was time to retire that joke. You’re seventeen now! I wanted to get you a real gift, not a joke gift. And a more, um, you know,” Yamaguchi’s smile softened and his fingers tiptoed across the bed, squeezing Kei’s leg as they found their place in his lap. “A more boyfriendly gift.”

The blush that peeked through Yamaguchi’s freckles only further increased the heat that rose in Kei’s cheeks. It was almost enough to distract him from a key element to what Yamaguchi had said.

“What do you mean by ‘ _joke gift_ ’?”

“You know,” Yamaguchi answered, “how I always get you dinosaur stuff to tease you about pretending to like dinosaurs.”

Kei frowned. “I never pretended to like dinosaurs.”

Yamaguchi leaned back, his smile fading slightly. “You do every year.”

Kei only continued to look confused.

“Are _you_ joking?” Yamaguchi asked.

“Yamaguchi, what are you talking about?”

He returned Kei’s frown. “I'm talking about when we were kids and you told me you thought dinosaurs were cool to save face!”

And suddenly ‘ _dinosaurs are RAWR-some!_ ’ flashed across his mind as if in bright neon lights. The heat returned to his cheeks and brought friends.

“Tsukki, are you saying you genuinely like dinosaurs?”

Kei thought back to that day. He hadn’t cared about dinosaurs before then, had he? He only pretended in a spur-of-the-moment decision. He had never expected it to evolve into...this.

“That would explain why you always have dinosaur decorations up. I thought you were just really into the joke…”

After taking a deep breath, Kei buried his head in his hands. “You’re right. The first time, it was a lie.”

“Oh,” Yamaguchi said slowly. “But it’s not a lie anymore?” Kei shook his head. “Okay. When did you start liking dinosaurs?”

The stegosaurus model came to mind and brought with it one of Kei’s most vivid memories: Yamaguchi’s bright smile, his eyes squinted shut in delight as Kei pulled the model’s box out of wrapping paper made of pasted together dinosaur drawings. At the time it happened, and at the thought of the memory, affection swelled inside of him.

“When you...first...gave me...one…”

“And that’s when you realized you actually do think dinosaurs are cool…?”

Kei shook his head and stood, dragging his feet to his closet. With a grunt, he pulled the dino-box out from its spot and dropped it on the bed beside Yamaguchi.

“That's a lot of dino merch,” Yamaguchi commented. He stuck his hand in and prodded through the contents. “I can’t believe you kept all of it…”

“Of course I did.” Kei glared at Yamaguchi and crossed his arms. “You’re the whole reason I love dinosaurs. Of course I would keep every triceratops water bottle and pterodactyl sticker you gave me. But that’s not the worst of it.”

Kei leaned back into his closet and dug deep to pull out the last remnant of his dinosaur obsession before hurling it across the room at Yamaguchi.

The giant plushie knocked him back and it took a moment of grappling for Yamaguchi to get a hold of it.

“It’s Tsukkisaurus!” Yamaguchi cried as he held the saltasaurus plushie up to his face.

“You bought _this_ as a joke?” Kei asked. “Where did you think I would put this thing? Did you know this is my favorite dinosaur now? Because you keep calling it a Tsukkisaurus. Because you bought me this ridiculously giant saltasaurus plushie. I lied to you about _one_ interest _once_ and it altered my entire personality.”

Kei dropped face-first onto his bed and groaned. Yamaguchi dug further into the box and made a delighted noise as he pulled something out. There was a moment of silence, and then Kei heard the sound of cardboard and plastic ripping. He turned his head to see Yamaguchi tearing open his new headphones.

“Isn’t that _my_ gift…?” Kei asked weakly.

“Not yet,” Yamaguchi replied. “I have to fix it first.”

Slowly, Kei turned himself over to lay on his back while Yamaguchi “fixed” his gift. He threw an arm over his eyes so he could better concentrate as his mind raced with thoughts of the true nature of humanity and how easily personalities can be altered by one tiny snap-decision…

There were more ripping noises as Yamaguchi freed the headphones from their packaging, then a rustling noise and a short “yes” from under his breath. Kei felt his mattress shift as Yamaguchi crawled towards him.

“Tsukki?”

Yamaguchi’s hand brushed against his forehead and Kei opened his eyes with a scowl on his face.

“Look!”

Kei looked at what Yamaguchi gestured towards. In his hand were the headphones he had just unboxed, but now they were decorated with pterodactyl stickers.

“An improvement, right?”

 _I have to wear these in public_ , was the first thought that crossed Kei’s mind, but then Yamaguchi caught his eye, wearing that glowing smile and his heart threatened to jump out through his throat.

With a nod, Kei took the headphones from Yamaguchi’s hands. “Thanks, Yamaguchi.”

Kei sat up in order to admire the sticker placement more attentively. A large, sparkly yellow pterodactyl covered the entire logo on one ear. Smaller, matte pterodactyls decorated the band, and one tiny saltasaurus sticker had found a spot amongst the clutter.

“Don’t you think I'm actually a really good gift-giver?” Yamaguchi asked.

“.....I can’t say you’re wrong.”

“Since I'm such a good gift-giver, maybe I could...have a...birthday...kiss? If that’s alright...Kei?”

The heart that beat furiously at Kei’s ribcage was once again threatening to make its escape, less from Yamaguchi’s request and more from the use of Kei’s name. From the blush that re-appeared between his freckles, Yamaguchi hadn’t been ready for it either.

“Sorry - “ Yamaguchi started.

“Kei’s fine,” he said, cutting Yamaguchi off. “Every once in a while, it’s...fine.”

Yamaguchi bit back a smile and nodded. “And the other thing?”

Kei thought for a moment before nodding his head. “Every once in a while, I suppose, it’s fine.”

A smaller version of that glowing smile that had Kei hypnotized was plastered across Yamaguchi’s face as he shifted from knee to knee scooting closer. A new sensation shot through Kei as he lifted his hand up to cup Yamaguchi’s cheek and Yamaguchi’s face grew redder.

“Close your eyes...Tadashi.”

At the sound of his name, Yamaguchi’s eyes grew as wide as ever and just as quickly shut tightly in compliance with Kei’s request. It gave him a rare opportunity to study the face he adored with no interference. He had often thought, if he had a chance like this, he could count the freckles on Yamaguchi’s skin, trace the patterns they created like constellations in the sky. He could find out exactly what it was that made Yamaguchi’s expression and smile so vibrant they shone like the sun, totally eclipsing any fears or doubts he had.

All of those notions passed through his mind, and he ignored them. Instead, he picked Tsukkisaurus up by the neck and shoved the head of that stuffed saltasaurus into his boyfriend’s waiting face.

With an “oof!” Yamaguchi fell backwards under the weight of the saltasaurus for the second time that day.

By the time he had regained his composure, Kei was on the opposite side of the room, glancing back at Yamaguchi.

"If you want a birthday treat,” Kei said, “nii-chan prepared a cake.”

Yamaguchi, already fully recovered, stood and asked, "is it dinosaur-themed?”

“No,” Kei lied. “Do you want cake, or not?” He said, turning to leave the room.

Yamaguchi began to follow behind but paused as Kei stopped in his doorway.

"It’s _my_ birthday,” Kei said. He was silent for a moment. In front of him, his hands moved back and forth as he tugged on his fingers. “Shouldn’t you be the one offering me a birthday kiss?”

And then he was out the doorway and down the hall, faster than Yamaguchi could react.

Chasing after him, Yamaguchi called out, “you’re right! Sorry, Tsukki!”

**Author's Note:**

> my best friend drew [some really good fanart](https://t-recksie.tumblr.com/post/627830950738493440/you-do-talk-a-lot-he-replied-yamaguchi-smiled) for this fic <3
> 
> 1) i know there are rules abt capitalizing/italicizing when it comes to dino names but...i'm stupit and i dont care who knows it :)
> 
> 2) i believe aki was also dino-obsessed as a kid? here's a theory...he only gets into dinos bc tsukki is into dinos. the cycle continues
> 
> 3) THANK YOU for reading!! come say hi on [tumblr](https://boomairspike.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/boomairspike)


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